Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Keeping the memories: Adapting the Baking and Candy Making Season

The first week of December is a biggie for a lot of folks. Now that Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are past, we can focus on what's really important: Christmas cookie and candy making.

My sister made the same candy as Mindy!

My sister Ann already sent out her Christmas cards and she's gotten a head start on the sweet treats too. She's the one who inherited our grandmother's knack for all things sweet. Nanny used to send us a big box of homemade cookies and candy that would arrive right before Thanksgiving. The goodies were stored in the cold garage until Mom's Open House. But we'd sneak a piece now and then.

Now, me? I hang up Mom's Christmas apron:

Mom loved poinsettias.

Pull out Mom's recipe box:

And revisit all the old memories with Mom's and Nanny's original recipe cards.

But every year recreating those memories is a challenge because of my allergies to wheat and corn. This year I added financial concerns. Baking and candy making are not cheap ventures. I know so many other families who are in the same situation. This year I know folks who have gone vegan or vegetarian, have discovered their child has celiac disease or other allergies, who developed diabetes, or are unemployed. Whew!

I'm all about keeping stress low this holiday season. So what to do when you are trying to recreate Christmas memories for family members with allergy, sugar or vegan concerns without breaking the bank?

1) Give thanks for that one recipe that you can eat or afford to make. I looked at the picture of the recipe cards and, wow, there was one that didn't have wheat or corn and wasn't overly expensive, Forgotten Cookies. What a find! Bonus? It's a star on the Pinterest gluten free Christmas cookie lists. So a recipe that's been around for decades before folks talked gluten and celiac stays on my list. (Recipe at the end of this post.)

2) Think flavors, not recreating the exact recipe. My other favorite recipes featured in the above picture are fruit cake cookies (expensive ingredients and allergy issues), Date Nut Roll cookies (wheat), and peanut butter roll candy (corn syrup). Cane syrup does not work the same way as corn syrup does. I don't like xanthan gums that lots of GF baking recipes use and it's not cheap. So I focused on the flavors: fruit and nut, dates and short bread, and peanut butter. Then I did what I do when I'm desperately in need of help and low on creativity, I headed to....

3) Pinterest, go to Pinterest! The mecca of all things helpful with food challenges. Thanks to www.finecooking.com, I could savor that date and shortbread combo. It wasn't a pinwheel cookie recipe but I found a date nut cookie substitute .

Now for a corn syrup free substitute for Nanny's peanut butter candy roll . Thanks to Pinterest, I found the recipe on www.justapinch.com. I'll use confectioners sugar with tapioca rather than cornstarch.
Fruit cake cookies? I started looking, got distracted by Christmas decor pins, and then...

20 comments:

my challenge is cooking...tried my aunt Ann's datenut balls after Christmas last year and it was a disaster - had a bunch of chopped up dates and sugar and butter trying to melt then add an egg and not have it fry - turned out I forgot to add it and it was too late - then stirring in chopped pecans and rice krispies and burning my hands trying to roll into balls (even buttered my hands) and then roll in coconute- finally put it out for the birds and squirrels. and that was a lot of work. hoping this year I can get a hands-on lesson from her if I get up there before she makes them. so I definitely don't bake enough for budget to be a big issue but I do remember the ingredients for these being pretty pricey...so I can see how it could easily get out of hand budget-wise. no allergies either but I DO need to get some weight off for healthy reasons and that's tough for me as I have a huge sweet tooth. :-( and also I'm finding that some of the foods that were so special don't taste the same any more esp casseroles. it's sad :-( plus I think I try to get the feeling of happier times through the food I had then so it's doubly bad.Susanna

You know, both your posts remind me of those recipes so many of us have tried to copy and failed because Mom or Grandma just used a heaping teacup full or this and a pinch of that. The timing in relative and I know you are on a different schedule. I've always done them at around 7 or 8 PM and taken them out at 6AM. So that's ten hours. I am sure it could be less or done during the day, I just don't know what the minimum would be. I've seen up to 12 hours for drying.

WOW, Your mom's recipe box. What a treasure. Maybe consider putting together a family cookbook. I did this ten years ago. Now I am preparing to do volume 2. This time I am using Morris Press. The nice thing is all those recipes in one location for grandkids to pass on too. Ruthy should for sure do this.

Yep, it really is. And there are cards from both grandmothers and her dear friends. I've meant to do what you suggest for years. I've thought about taking pictures of the original cards, getting tales together. But I've been revising my dad's genealogy book and his memoir while he's here. So I guess it's time to give Mom her due too.

Rich memories here. I don't have many family recipes. My mom was a creative baker and had the basic recipes memorized and tweaked them every time she made a new batch. I tried to get her to dictate some for me but it was all 'a handful of this' and 'pinch of that'. If I asked her, "How much exactly?" She'd say, "Until it feels right." I am not an intuitive cook and I need instructions! LOL

I love those old recipes, too, Julie. Though that doesn't stop me from adding new ones to the mix just about every year.

Neither my mom nor my grandmother were big bakers. Mom's thing was to make fudge every year. Now she asks me to make a batch for her. Grandma wasn't a bad cook, but the only things I really remember are her blueberry pies, blueberry jam and baked beans. None of which made an appearance at Christmas time.

I always enjoyed cooking and looking for new recipes, though, so by the time I was in high school, I assumed the role of baker. Then, as a young bride, my former MIL (now simply my friend :) shared some of the most amazing recipes with me and broadened my repertoire. I still have many of her recipes and revisit them every year.

Isn't it interesting how our roles change? My sister who makes the candy is a diabetic with very good self control. She makes the candy and sends it out of the house! My daughter is like her great grandmother and sends out care packages to all the relatives this time of year. She just loves it.

Hi Julie. I love how you are displaying your mother's holiday apron. That leaves me with the warm and fuzzies. And I feel the same way about Pinterest. It is a hole that I can get sucked into on a regular basis. The gowns. The travel destinations. Paris!! I really have to restrain myself from going on there when I have a deadline. It is so addictive. And your cookie recipe looks yummy. I love cookies with nuts, although I feel that people don't post enough of them, perhaps because of this generation's allergy issues.

Belle, you need to go to the Pinterest paleo pins. Nuts predominate! It is all about where your focus is...Which like we've admitted is ruined by Pinterest. Do you have a warm and fuzzy thing you put out to remind you of family and traditions past?

I have my mom's, grandmother's and mother-in-law's recipe boxes, too! I have an idea to display them in a shadow box - but the current house has no wall space in the kitchen. In off moments I brainstorm alternatives....

I make the tried and true recipes every year. And THIS year I have my mom's 3-tiered snack tray thingy that was part of every Christmas when I was growing up. We'll use it this year in her memory - and fill it with the snacks she used to make. Warm and fuzzy all the way.

I'll have to try those meringue cookies. I'll make them during the day, though. That way they'll come out of the oven just when the family is getting home, rather than just when they're all leaving me alone for the day. Alone with cookies. Wait a minute - that isn't such a bad idea! :)

Jan, I know we aren't supposed to put our stock in material wares but I am so glad you and I have bits of our mothers' ties to the Christmas season. I can't wait to see what you do with the recipe cards eventually.

This is such a sweet post (sweet--get it?). I love your recipe cards. One of my sisters took our mom's recipe box, after years of being "lost", and scanned the recipes and sent us all a cd. Unfortunately, I have a Mac, and she did them on a PC, so it didn't work for me. But I have most of the recipes I want/need. Your Fruit Cake Cookies recipe reminds me of our Bourbon Cookies--lots of candied fruit, pecans, really dense, and you can hardly taste the bourbon. ;) And the meringue cookies sound absolutely decadent.

The Small Print

By the way...we're not doctors or nurses. We're not nutritionists. We're not mental health professionals. We just like to eat and chat and share recommendations. All sharing on this blog is the opinion of the individual authors and is for entertainment purposes only. It's not to be taken as medical or health advice. Please always talk to your doctor about what's best for you!